How many of you know that you can edit almost any Wikipedia entry? How many of you know that you can do that at any time?

When I ask my friends questions similar to these, I receive incredulous looks. When I tell my friends that I am a registered editor of Wikipedia, their faces change to disbelief – yet it's true. I have authored numerous articles on long-gone warships from around the world which has literally changed my life. The quality of my writing has dramatically improved, an immense help for my college papers and a skill that will give me an advantage in applying for jobs. My choice of major, and why I want to teach high school history, was and is influenced by the interests kindled during my time here.

I am not the only one who this has happened to. Similar experiences can be had in the future – but only if Wikipedia is kept running. It is not widely known that the 273 Wikipedias, ranging from the Abkhazian to Zulu languages, are kept running by your donations. Be a part of the largest encyclopedia ever created. Keep "the free encyclopedia anyone can edit" running. Help us reach our ultimate goal: a world in which every single person on the planet has free access to the sum of all human knowledge.

Thanks so much for taking a stab at this Ed! I have your appeal and am circulating it around our team for any feedback they may have. Get in touch if you have any questions about the process. --Deniz (WMF) 06:23, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

That MilHist newsletter is 'really' good. Too bad you couldn't use it as a college admissions essay. If you want to adapt it, I think it makes a great piece. Ocaasi 20:23, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

Thanks! I'll take a stab at adapting it tonight if Parsec agrees. :-) Ed (talk) 16:19, 12 November 2010 (UTC)

I am a college student in the United States, and as part of attaining my desired degree, I chose to take a course in Arab-Islamic history. We began in the early 600s and spent some time on the origins of the Islamic conquering of the Sassanid Empire and a good portion of the Byzantine Empire (c. 634–750). From there, we moved through the various ages of history, and at one point we began discussing the Ottoman Empire and other Islamic regions of more recent times.

As we moved into the Ottoman Empire's role in the First World War, our professor mentioned that they were blockading the Bosphorus, using it as a chokepoint to cut off needed supplies traveling to Russia's only warm-water port, Sevastopol. An astute classmate, realizing this meant the use of warships, wondered what naval technology was like during the time. The professor turned and asked me to answer the question, as he knew I have been studying modern naval history through my writing on Wikipedia.

The point of this anecdote is not to boast, but to provoke some thought. By virtue of the research Wikipedia writers must do to write complete, referenced articles, many of us are acquiring knowledge in specialized topics that can surpass even learned scholars. Wikipedia might even provoke some of us into becoming learned scholars through the subjects we find here – see Parsecboy for one.

In May 2007, Parsecboy came across a few essentially empty stubs on German battleship classes and expanded them. 31/2 years later, he's written or collaborated on almost 80 articles rated as good or higher, including 20 featured articles, the majority related to German warships. The work Parsecboy has done for Wikipedia has had a tremendous impact on his academic career: to complete his undergraduate degree, he wrote a 50-page Honors Thesis that analyzed the British and German battlecruiser squadrons during the First World War. Parsecboy plans to attend graduate school and continue his research in the area, culminating in a dissertation. He comments that "without a doubt, I would not have had nearly as much knowledge and interest in the topic, nor would I have known where to begin researching if I had not become so involved with the topic here on Wikipedia."

However, without your help, Wikipedia will eventually run out of money, and people like Parsec or me will never have the chance to find a passion for a subject they did not know existed. You see, the site is powered entirely by donations from normal individuals – people just like you. If you want to be a part of the largest encyclopedia ever created, keep "the free encyclopedia anyone can edit" running, and help up reach our ultimate goal – a world in which every single person on the planet has free access to the sum of all human knowledge – please, donate today.

The ed17 - I wanted to personally thank you for writing two editor appeals for the fundraiser this year. I'm sorry we weren't able to use all of them this year, but I really appreciate you taking the time to write and submit them. Thanks again - Deniz (WMF) 21:21, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

Hi, a minor correction to this article, the number of Wikimedia Chapters Association Council members eligible to vote is 22, not 20. You can find this on the vote page itself. Thanks --Fæ (talk) 21:57, 7 March 2013 (UTC)

For the past few months, Legoktm has built a replacement to the current message delivery system called MassMessage. MassMessage uses a proper user interface form (no more editing a /Spam subpage), works faster (it can complete a large delivery in minutes), and no longer requires being on an access list (any local administrator can use it). In addition, many tiny annoyances with the old system have been addressed. It's a real improvement! :-)

You can test out MassMessage here: testwiki:Special:MassMessage. The biggest difference you'll likely notice is that any input list must use a new {{#target:}} parser function. For example, {{#target:User talk:Jimbo Wales}} or {{#target:User talk:Jimbo Wales|test2.wikipedia.org}}. For detailed instructions, check out mw:Help:Extension:MassMessage.

If you find any bugs, have suggestions for additional features, or have any other feedback, drop a note at m:Talk:MassMessage. Thanks for spamming! --MZMcBride (talk) 05:26, 1 October 2013 (UTC)

Thank you for using VisualEditor and sharing your ideas with the developers. My apologies if you're getting this message more than once, and/or not in your favorite language.

Hello, The ed17,

I am contacting you because you have left feedback about VisualEditor at pages like mw:VisualEditor/Feedback in the past. The Editing team is now asking for your help with VisualEditor. Please tell them what they need to change to make VisualEditor work well for you. The team has a list of top-priority problems, but they also want to hear about small problems. These problems may make editing less fun, take too much of your time, or be as annoying as a paper cut. The Editing team wants to hear about and try to fix these small things, too.

You can share your thoughts by clicking this link. You may respond to this quick, simple, anonymous survey in your own language. If you take the survey, then you agree your responses may be used in accordance with these terms. This survey is powered by Qualtrics and their use of your information is governed by their privacy policy.

I'm contacting you because you supported the Commons Deletion Bot proposal in the 2017 Community Wishlist. The Wishlist team has finalized the draft specifications for how the bot will work, and are seeking review in confirming or discussing the plans for the bot. If you have some time, please take a look and leave a comment. Thanks, happy editing to you. - Keegan (WMF) (talk) 19:06, 12 April 2018 (UTC)

Hi - according to our records you received a free account for JSTOR through The Wikipedia Library. Because we’ve used up all of our allocated accounts, and it’s been some time since they were distributed, we want to redistribute any accounts that aren’t being used to users on our waitlist.

If you’re still using, or plan to use, your JSTOR access, no problem! Simply head over to the Library Card platform, log in, and request a renewal of your account. You should be able to do this from your user page, or the JSTOR signup page. If you can’t find the renewal button, or have any other issues or questions about this, please feel free to leave a message on my talk page. We’ll begin redistributing inactive accounts in September; if you request renewal after then we will only be able to reactivate your account if we have spots remaining. Thanks, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:32, 20 August 2018 (UTC)

You get this message because you’ve previously participated in the Community Wishlist Survey. I just wanted to let you know that this year’s survey is now open for proposals. You can suggest technical changes until 11 November: Community Wishlist Survey 2019.

You can vote from November 16 to November 30. To keep the number of messages at a reasonable level, I won’t send out a separate reminder to you about that. /Johan (WMF) 11:24, 30 October 2018 (UTC)